It’s that time of the week again. Six tips for the weekend, three of them which will have your pockets bulging with cash to soothe a World Cup-related hangover on Monday morning.
Unsurprisingly, the World Cup dominates our fancies for this weekend, with a little bit of GAA and Rugby thrown in for a bit of variety.
It’s finally here. After what seems to have been a lifetime of friendlies, injuries to star names and non-stories on Sky Sports News, the greatest show on earth gets underway in South Africa this afternoon.
With Ireland not in the competition, football fans across the land will be once again supporting whoever the English (and this time, the French) are playing. We’re going to shy away from indulging in some tan-bashing for now and tip Steven Gerrard and company to triumph in their opening encounter against the USA.
England have become a solid and disciplined unit under Fabio Capello and despite the absence of Rio Ferdinand, we see them keeping a clean sheet in Cape Town. England to win 3-0 is available at 9/1.
Click here for JOE’s dedicated World Cup section.
Pat Gilroy will no doubt be delighted that the World Cup will be the centre of attention this weekend, as the massive amounts of hype surrounding his Dublin side will be dampened somewhat. He has wielded the axe on the side that exited the championship to Kerry with a whimper last year, but one man that remains is Bernard Brogan at full forward.
The younger of the Brogan brothers was in fantastic scoring form during the league and we think he’s an excellent bet to be the first to raise a green flag against Wexford in Croke Park on Sunday. He’s available at 9/2 to score the first goal.
Click here to read JOE’s preview of Dublin v Wexford and rest of the weekend’s games in the football championship.
Lest we forget, Ireland face up to the All-Blacks early on Saturday morning, attempting to an end a miserable record against the most famous exponents of the oval ball which has yielded only a single draw in 22 attempts.
With heavyweight performers like Paul O’Connell, Jerry Flannery and Stephen Ferris amongst those absent, we don’t think Ireland are going to put an end to that record this time around, but with the pressure off to an extent and New Zealand fielding a few rookies, we reckon they’ll put up a good fight. New Zealand to win by 6-10 points can be backed at 5/1.
Click here to read JOE’s preview of the Saturday morning’s clash in New Plymouth.
Break the Bookie
One of the joys about the World Cup from a punter’s point of view is the number of absolutely ridiculous bets offered up by the bookies. One bet in particular caught our eye, the number of times the ITV commentators will mention 1966 while commentating on the England v USA game.
Cliché fanatic Clive Tyldesley will be in the commentator’s chair alongside former Irishman Andy Townsend and we think he’s a shoo-in to mention 1966 four times or more at 6/1.
Back to the rugby again for a moment and while Ireland will be facing a number of All-Black debutants on Saturday morning, they will also be facing probably the best player in the world in the last few years in the shape of out-half Dan Carter. With a range of passing, running and kicking skills, Carter is the complete number ten and has a pretty impressive record of 25 tries in 66 appearances. We think he’s fantastic value at 16/1 to score the first try on Saturday morning.
With the weekend that’s in it, we’ll plump for one more World Cup bet to finish off our tips for the weekend. With players like Tevez, Higuain and the irrepressible Messi in their ranks, Argentina are potential winners of the competition, but with Diego Maradona in charge, anything’s possible. We think their opener with Nigeria could be a bit crazy and we’re going to stick our necks on the line for Argentina to win on a 4-2 scoreline at 50/1.
A tenner on those three certainties will leave you with a windfall of €60,690 more than enough for you to hop on the plane to South Africa on Monday morning.
